My U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,316 issued Sep. 2, 1997 and my U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,324, issued Aug. 18, 1998 disclose and claim a pallet couple and decouple clamping apparatus and method for pallet coupling and decoupling.
The invention includes a male half and a female half of the coupling. The male half includes a first outer piston and a second inner piston which mate with a receiver having a control port, vent port and a power port. The power port of the receiver drives an air driven pump which either clamps a vice or unclamps a vice. An accumulator is used to store hydraulic fluid under pressure when the machining table or pallet is in the machining center.